Mutu director Barry Stephens chats with Emmanuelle Montague-Sayers, Brand Manager of award-winning The Sally Montague Group, about their approach to better customer service.
Boosting profit and delighting clients
The Sally Montague Group recognises that exceptional service is essential for driving future growth…
“In a crowded marketplace such as hair and beauty, it’s the client experience that helps us stand out from the competition,” explains The Group’s Brand Manager, Emmanuelle Montague-Sayers. “We want to be at the cutting-edge when it comes to providing a personalised experience which is why we turned to Salon Call Manager for help and advice.”
Forward thinking hair and beauty group
Sally set up her first salon in 1983. Today the Group boasts 6 salons across Derbyshire and countless industry awards ranging from the prestigious L’Oréal Professional Colour Trophy Regional Finals and Creative HEAD’s It Girl and Fashionista titles to awards for salon restoration and interiors.
From a purpose-built luxurious salon with beauty spa in Ashbourne to a fast-paced salon at the University of Derby offering affordable hairdressing to students, Sally and her team are recognised throughout the industry for their forward-thinking, dedication to detail and winning mentality.
Missed calls frustrate clients and reduce profit
However, the team felt customer service was being held back by their phone system. “We’d been worried about the number of calls being missed for quite a while and had tried to put manual measures in place to track missed calls across the salon group,” Emmanuelle explains. “This manual method wasn’t at all accurate but it made us realise that we definitely needed to find a solution as these missed calls were costing us profit!”
“We had no idea of how many calls were being missed or when,” continues Emmanuelle. “Our clients expect fantastic service and missing so many calls meant that the first part of their client journey was a disappointment.”
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Delivering a better client experience
“Clients were understandably frustrated at not being able to reach us,” says Emmanuelle. “Even though we have a reception team at each salon there were times when a client heard an engaged tone or the call was missed altogether with no way of knowing who it was.”
Now with Salon Call Manager, callers always hear a friendly professional welcome message personalised to each salon regardless of whether reception is busy, unattended or closed.
On-hold promotional messages keep callers engaged and on the line with useful information about new services and offers – at the moment the Group are promoting seasonal gift packages.
If a caller hangs up they instantly receive a text telling them the salon will call them back as soon as possible. Emmanuelle adds, “Our clients have noticed and commented on how efficient our system is. It makes them feel more valued and they now expect a call back rather than having to keep trying.”
Filling appointments and driving sales
Salon Call Manager doesn’t just contact your missed callers. When you miss a call for any reason the system displays all client calls on the live web view enabling the front of house to team to quickly identify missed client calls, while an ‘action’ button on screen lets you easily check whether that vital call back has been made and the appointment booked.
As brand manager, Emmanuelle also receives an end-of-day call report to her phone, no matter where she is, allowing her to take control over missed calls and constantly manage the reception teams’ performance.
Emmanuelle takes up the story, “We now call back hundreds of clients across the group and are able to fill any spaces or cancellations much more easily by just calling back clients who we have missed. This helped boost group turnover last year and we’re so impressed we’re going one step further and setting up a centralised group booking centre with Salon Call Manager in 2018, to drive profitability and better client service.”
Emmanuelle shares her tips on how to grow a successful profitable hair and beauty business:
1. Salon businesses are led from the front desk
Regularly check your reception team is accurately charging clients – this will have an instant and often big impact on turnover.
2. Make it as easy as possible for clients to book
Remove, or at least reduce, all obstacles such as missed calls and lengthy online booking forms making it quick and hassle free for clients to make appointments.
3. Watch your finances constantly
This sounds obvious but there is no tip bigger than this. We are constantly watching and measuring to ensure the growth of the salon group as a whole.